I’m reading $20 Per Gallon now and will soon be comparing it to The Long Emergency in a comment/review here. While reading the $10 chapter on what changes we can expect in cars, I realized that I have fallen out of love. I really and truly no longer give a hoot about cars.
Last year I gave away the last car I ever intend to own: a 1996 Ford Explorer. I’ve owned a car ever since taking my first job out of college. In order: a Ford Pinto (stop laughing), an MGB, two Mazda pick-ups, a Dodge Dakota, a 1992 Explorer, and the 1996 Explorer. My wife has also owned cars all this time: a 1973 Ford Mustang (stop laughing), and three Honda Civics — one of which, a 1996 model, we still own — our one car — with almost a quarter million miles on it.
There was a time I loved cars (not that I could afford the ones I really loved — except for the MGB).
Then I got on a bicycle (because the conditions were right, i.e. where I live, where I work, and the topography), and things began to change rather fast.
A big difference between the two books so far: $20 Per Gallon describes a difficult future, but the tone is optimistic. The tone of The Long Emergency is dark. I have no idea if one is more correct than the other. But I do know that I’m living a possible future right now. And it’s better.
Comments 3
At $20 per quart for gasoline, I shall love my E type Jaguar all the more.
Posted 27 Aug 2010 at 12:11 pm ¶Steve… Yes. But will you drive it? Must one drive to love? Hmmmmm…
Posted 27 Aug 2010 at 12:51 pm ¶A long slow descent would be much better. Everything thing we buy, projects we do around the house, cars we drive, is all with thought in a slow descent pathway. I have friends that are the (Long Emergency) kind of guys. I sure hope it doesn’t go that way.
Posted 28 Aug 2010 at 5:36 am ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
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